If infile is specifiedĪs a '-' character, then input is taken from standard input. If no infile is given, standard input is read. Moreover, it can be used to perform binary file patching.

Like uuencode and uudecode it allows the transmission of binary data in an 'email-safe' ASCII representation, but has the advantage of decoding to standard output. It can also convert a hex dump back to its original binary form. Xxd creates a hex dump of a given file or standard input.